


Hospitalized

by Toxiczodiac



Category: Inspector Gadget (Cartoon)
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Recovery, Romance, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-09-03 01:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8691784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toxiczodiac/pseuds/Toxiczodiac
Summary: When his boyfriend doesn't return for two weeks, Gadget goes to look for him with Penny's help. However, it doesn't seem to go very well and when John returns hours later with no boyfriend to come home to, he and Penny go to look for him. They don't like what they find.





	

“He's been gone for a couple weeks. That's really unlike him.” Gadget said as he had never noticed his partner around the house for some time. Found it so odd. “I hope he isn't in any kind of trouble.”  


Penny who overheard her uncle's concerns only muttered “he's always trouble.” But admittedly, she was concerned as well. It really wasn't like the clone to be gone longer than three days, but even considering the absence he never really tells anyone where he's going other than “to work.” It just boggled her mind.  


“Maybe I should go look for him.” The detective piped up again, he was pretty concerned. Had started to get so when his clone didn't return after three days, was hard to focus on his job not knowing what's wrong or what happened.  


That hit an idea with Penny, she could find him. “If he still has the same signal as you do, I might be able to give you his location, Uncle Gadget.” Hopefully.  


Hearing that gave the worried inspector a big smile, “That's a great idea, Penny!” Of course he'd listen to that. Considering his boyfriend was missing, anything was better than just searching blindly.  


“Alright, it should take a few seconds.” Tracking a clone of her uncle can't be that hard. He was smarter and pretty detestable, but surely he can't be that smart to deactivate that tracking signal. Then again, she never tried tracking him before. Before this new job he got, he was literally inseparable from her uncle (much to her distaste).  


Computer in her lap, she tapped away to see if she could find the likely identical signal to her uncle. Soon enough, she found traces of it. Sort of. The traces did blank out on some areas, but she did get where it ended. She did find it suspicious that her uncle's clone would be at something so isolated like the south part of the harbor. What could he have been doing? They'll find out soon enough.  


“I manage to trace his signal to his last known location, I've already gave your communicator the coordinates. Please be careful, Uncle Gadget.” Penny was concerned that the last whereabouts happened to be a bad part of the docks of all places but it's usually deserted at this time of day. At least she thought so.  


With a nod, Gadget started out the door, “Don't worry about a thing, Penny, I'll get him home safe and sound!” But he never notices that she doesn't even like the guy, she just stands him because her uncle loves him.  


Out he went to look for his clone.

[ Hours later ]

The door creeks open and a man awfully similar to Gadget enters; he wore just a white dress shirt with the sleeves folded up to show the metallic sheen of his cybernetic arms along with a navy blue tie, charcoal pants with a black leather belt, and black dress shoes. Looked a mess, red stains on his shirt and pants along with some dirt and grime. He immediately went to the bathroom to clean up his face which had some dried blood around the mouth and nose.

Penny had saw him come in and followed him, looking none too happy. “Where were you?” She demanded, “Uncle Gadget was worried sick!”

A grunt left the clone as he wiped his face with one of the small towels by the mirror. “I was at work.” He responded rather gruffly.

“For two weeks?! No calls, no updates—?”

That forced him to pause for a moment, then face her with an unbelieving look on his face. “Ya never checked your messages? I left a number of 'em when I couldn't come back after three days.”

Oh, she checked, so did Gadget. “None of them were from you.” Even if she was the one who checked them mostly, she wasn't cold enough to lie to her dear uncle that none of them were from his boyfriend.

“Shit—“ He immediately started leaving the bathroom to try and find Gadget, “Where's he?” He had to make it up to him. This can't be right. He heard the answering machine and everything, even sent emails. Did none of those go through?

Still sternly watching the clone, Penny outright said, “He went looking for you. I sent him to your last whereabouts because I tracked your signal.”

The clone just grunted, “ _Where_?” It couldn't be where he thought.

“South Docks. That's where your signal ended.”

His eyes widened, oh no. “Nononononono—“ Freaking out now, oh god. What have she done?

“Serves you r—“

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE?! WITHOUT SUPERVISION?!”

Well, she knew it was dangerous but it couldn't be—

“UGH. 'm goin' after him. God forbid if anythin' happens. You stay here, missy, an' think about what ya did.” Then he headed out the door while muttering “god damn sent his stupid ass to his death.”

Oh, she caught that, and that just alarmed her more. What had she done? Oh man. Why didn't she send Figit, Digit, or even _Brain_ to keep an eye on him just in case? If she knew... Oh man. Course, if she was going to stay home, she can at least send one of them to follow the clone.

That's just what she did, “Figit! Digit!” She called to them, who were sort of listening in from another room. The two of them toppled out from behind the door, Figit nervously waving at Penny while Digit looked very annoyed, mostly at his orange brother.

“Yes, Penny?” the small orange robot asked nervously.

“I need you two to follow John, but do it discreetly. Don't let him see, hear, or smell you.” And she was very direct about that. The clone was smarter than her uncle. Course, she'll call him 'John', he verbally preferred the name and she could at least respect _that_. She still pretty much detested him, though.

“We can tr—“ Figit got elbowed by his brother, who corrected; “We can most certainly do that, isn't that right, Figit?” Digit stared at the orange twin.

Sighing, his gaze trailed to the floor, “I suppose.” Neither of them really liked John much, either. Not even Brain, but not much could be done about that bastard.

They left the house to follow after the clone, being very careful to not be noticed by him at all as he hurriedly traveled through alleys on his rocket skates. Figit was really unsure if they could even keep from being noticed by him, but so far so good there was no hint he was aware. That was good.

Once John made it to the south harbor, he could see a hint of a silhouette on the ground. He activated his night vision to get a clearer look, as it was pretty dark out and not many lights were on in this area. Once he saw the figure, his fear hit him tenfold and he rushed over to it.

Figit and Digit were huddling the corner of the alley in the shadows, watching and sending the feed of what they saw to Penny. Which didn't really help her situation at all right now.

The clone was holding a pretty battered up Gadget in his arms. Seemed like his main hands where badly extended out, and some of the gadgets were ripped out of his hat. “Babe?” John worriedly called, papping the side of his boyfriend's cheek, “Wake up.” _God, please wake up_.

A groan left the detective, groggy, tired, _hurting_. Oh man he was hurting. “Not-me...?” Couldn't really move much, so much pain.

The fact that he was alive did ease the clone's worry some. “'m here, babe. Just stay with me.” He held his twin closer, let his head rest on his chest. John knew this would happen if Gadget ever tried to look for him. Dumbass may be fucking lucky, but even his luck wouldn't save him. It at least let him _survive_. That was a good thing.

But at what cost?

“It hurts—“

“Shh, just stay awake. Can ya do that?”

Gadget sighed, he was at least happy that his boyfriend was okay. Really wished he called or emailed about where he been, though.

The clone just kept holding him for awhile, making sure the battered man was still awake before he turned his head to where the two snooping little robots were, “'ey dumbots, don't just stand there like idiots, call an ambulance or somethin'.”

How the heckie did he even know-- “Hey, we're not dumb!” Figit responded defensively. But Digit went ahead and did so, or well, Penny did. Afterwards, the two approached them, awfully worried if the detective was going to be alright.

After minutes, John still holding a barely alive and awake Gadget, help arrived and got him safely onto an emergency bed and into the vehicle. The clone and the Gadgetinis hitched a ride in the ambulance, and John never even kept his eyes off his boyfriend while holding one of his extended out hands (which were later retracted).

Once at the hospital, the three had to sit in the waiting room while Gadget was in surgery. Penny arrived with Brain just as her uncle was taken past the doors. “Is he alright?” She sounded very worried and a little guilty considering she had him go look for John without some extra protection.

“He should be fine.” Digit responded, but muttering an “I hope” as he really wasn't sure, himself.

John just sat there, staring at the doors being alarmingly silent. Gadget was the only **good** thing in his life, he wasn't sure what he'd do if he lost him. For one thing though, he'd make those culprits pay. Find 'em and give 'em hell. _N_ _ **o**_ _one_ hurts his man and gets away with it.

They waited for a couple hours, really hoping that the detective will be alright. It wasn't until Penny ended up falling asleep right next to John that a rather tall ginger doctor came through those doors.

Glancing up at the speckled doctor, John gently woke up Penny with his hand shaking her shoulder. “'s he alright, doc?” He asked as the blonde haired teen rubbed her eyes and yawned.

“He'll be fine now that he's in better hands.” The doctor replied. Not much emotion was shown in his face or his voice.

Penny should be able to recognize that, glancing up at the doctor. “Dr. Kronos? You work here?” A little surprised.

“No, but I'm his doctor. They called me in as soon as he was brought in. I was the only one who knows how to work with both organic and mechanics.” How else would they ask for his help on this matter?

“That... makes sense I guess.” Penny got up from the bench, “Can we see him?”

Kronos gave them a nod and a “follow me”, the rest of them getting up from their seat and they all followed the doctor to the room Gadget was placed in.

“All of you are lucky they thought to call me, else you would've lost him for good. Suffered a lot of brutal assault, seemed like a blitz attack at first. Whoever did this to them knew well to take him down.” And that was worrysome, even to the tall genius. “But he's fine, for the most part.”

Once he opened the door, he let them in first before following them in.

Gadget was sleeping very peacefully on the bed, strapped to a few tubes and in a hospital gown. His hat was removed, however.

“Where's his hat?” Digit asked, a little surprised to see him without it.

“It's getting repaired by HQ. I wanted to have it done for them so it wouldn't take long, but they felt I had my hands full already.” The doctor replied.

The teen rolled her eyes, muttering “your hands are always full”

“I heard that.”

“Oh, right.” She forgot about his very sensitive hearing.

The clone, however, immediately went to Gadget's side. He took a chair with him and sat down, holding the sleeping detective's hand. John was still silent, but he was shaking just a little. Whether it was rage or sadness, was anyone's guess.

Kronos still stuck around, but because he had other news to give, “Gadget... Is in a coma, unfortunately.”

Brain gave a whine at the news.

“He should wake in a few weeks, hopefully. But there is another thing. I'm not entirely sure if either of you knew, but it does concern you. Especially _you_.” He indicated to John. Very well aware that the man was his patient's clone.

Penny glanced up after occupying the other side of her uncle's bed, “what is it?” Whatever it was, it can't be that good.

Kronos gave a small sigh, “Gadget has brain damage. Course, he had this long before the recent incident... Likely from the accident that ended up what he is now. Considering John here is his clone, chances he had inherited that as well.”

No wonder. Penny had suspected it, but it never hindered life that much. “Can you do something about it?”

John didn't really paid the doctor any mind, his attention was all on his bedridden boyfriend.

“Not without having to do a transplant of his organic half of his brain, or his entire brain. If course, I am skilled with bio-cybernetic organs... but I'm just not sure how this will work without damaging him, or both of them, permanently. If nothing gets worse for Gadget, all I can do is give him a prescription until he consents to the transplant.” Though for now, Gadget would have to take it through the feeding tube.

Penny sighed sadly, laying her head down next to her uncle's arm. Oh she hoped it didn't get worse for him. She's already mentally beating herself up for putting him in this position without back up.

Kronos headed out of the room, “I'll leave you lot alone. Visiting hours usually end in an hour but considering the circumstances, you're allowed to stay as long as you wish.” Well, if this was his lab, he'll let them live here until Gadget wakes up. The ginger finally left, closing the door behind him. He can trust them to take care of the sleeping man.

Figit and Digit were mostly watching John, who's shaking had gotten more violent now. The both of them, mostly Figit, were very worried of that now. Soon enough, the clone got up, letting his boyfriend's hand go.

The noise from it got Penny's and Brain's attention. “Where are you going?” It can't be good.

His metal hands clenched, he didn't look at her as he started towards the door. He was going to make whoever did this pay.

Oh no, that's not good. The teen immediately got up to grab the man by the arm to try and stop him. “ **No**! Don't leave! He needs you, now, more than ever.” Why was she begging to this trash of all people? Oh , she couldn't help it. Her uncle was in a coma, John might be all she'll have left.

It did make him pause and think about it, but he wouldn't be gone long. He was just going to find them and end it. Then come back. So he tried to move closer to the door again.

“ **Uncle John**! Stop!”

Now _that_ made him stop completely. His head turned to look at her. She never called him 'Uncle' in his life. How could she? She hated him. But her face? The puppy dog eyes and the sniffling. He couldn't... Rgh. John's shoulders slumped in defeat as he muttered a “fine” and he turned around.

Penny let go and he took his seat again next to Gadget. Suppose he could stick around until Gadget woke up.

They stayed there for hours, overnight. John never slept, but the others were fast asleep on the couch that was in the room. By morning, Penny, the Gadgetinis, and Brain woke up to find the clone still sitting next to Gadget wide awake.

Unfortunately for Penny, it was still a school day for her. She glanced over to the robots, “Can you two stay and watch Uncle Gadget with him?”

“Of course.” Digit replied, while Figit nodded.

“Good. I have to take Brain home and get ready for school. I'll come by after.” Of course she'll do what she can to visit. With that, she took Brain and headed home.

It was like this for days. Penny would always stop by for a few hours after school, even bring some food over for them to eat. John never touched anything. He stayed where he was, only left to clean up and use the bathroom or answer a call.

Time to time Penny did convince him to eat something, he was no good to her dear Uncle Gadget starved.

After a few weeks, on a Saturday, Penny came over with a couple large pizza boxes. “Uncle John? I brought pizza. One of them is your favorite.” Why she would even remember his favorite pizza is a mystery. Though, she had a hunch he had the same tastes as Gadget. “Chili Pepper and garlic, right?”

Oh, he could smell it too. Hungry, but he didn't feel like eating, so he ignored it. 

She gave a sigh, putting one of the boxes on the pull in table next to him, “You have to eat, Uncle John. Please?”

Ugh, he hated it when she said please, or called him 'Uncle John'. He awfully liked it better when she hated him and didn't care one lick if he lived or died. Grumbling, he opened the box and took a slice. Just silently eating as he watched the peaceful sleeping dummy in the hospital bed.

The rest of them ate their pizza, too. Penny brought pepperoni and mushrooms for herself and the others. Course, Figit liked pepper and garlic too, but he felt wiser to leave the clone's food alone until he was done with it. He stared over at Gadget with sad little robo eyes. _When will he wake up?_

A loud yawn was heard from the bed, and a mutter “hnn... smells good.” Before one of them noticed the patient's eyes flutter open.

John was only on his second slice when he saw and heard. He immediately put it back in the box and wiped his hands clean before he leaned over the bed. “Babe?”

Gadget gave a tired, but dumb smile at his clone. “Not-me.” At least he remembers him.

“Uncle Gadget!”

“Good morning, Penny.” He responded to her, quite groggily.

“Lieutenant!” Both robots called.

“Privates.”

Then there was the clone practically smothering his face with his own.

“Wowzers!” Gadget giggled, then patted his boyfriend's back. “I've only been asleep, you know.” But he wasn't aware for how long.

Penny smiled, though it was more sad than happy. “For three weeks!”

“Wowzers, that's some beauty sleep!” No wonder his clone was being extra affectionate.

Kronos came in to do a check, seeing his patient finally awake. “Ah, you're awake.” He walked over to the bed. “Gadget, I would like you to hold still just for a moment.” Or try to, anyway, as he removed the feeding tube from the detective's stomach. Awfully careful. The wound was instantly patched up.

“Ow.” It hurt, but “Hehehe, that tickles!” Typical Gadget.

“Much better.” No malfunction, considering the hat was still off. Then Kronos turned to check the vitals and other things to make sure his patient was still in good health. “No changes so far.” He looked to the group, “Nothing wrong with his memory?”

“Doesn't seem like it. He recognized all of us just fine.” Penny responded. Well, Brain wasn't here. He insisted to guard the house while Penny was visiting.

John still had his face right next to Gadget's though. Still pretty quiet but he was awfully content for his boyfriend to be awake.

The ginger nodded a little as he jotted down what he learned, “That's good. He'll stay for just a few more days before he's ready to go back home. Now that he's awake, I have to make sure nothing seriously changed other than a few scars. You lot can carry on, now. Oh, and try not to feed him the chilli pepper pizza, his stomach is not up to par yet.” Kronos left the room again.

“Did he say—“

“Yeah.” John sat up, “But ya can't have any. Maybe when you're feelin' better.”

Gadget groaned, but he loved that stuff! Suppose he can hold out until he's back at home.

Well, since Gadget wasn't going to eat any and John seemed occupied, Figit swiped a few slices for himself and just ate them.

“You can have some of mine, Uncle Gadget.” Penny offered a slice of the pepperoni and mushrooms.

With a dopey smile, he took it. Better than no pizza he supposed. He ate it happily and everyone resumed eating, of course they did make conversation. So far so good, there didn't seem to be any changes with Gadget's brain damage. No one brought up the incident, but there's a likely chance he wouldn't remember anyhow.

After a few days, everything checked out and Gadget was sent home. He got his hat back, fully repaired, and it was like nothing changed. Well, except John still wanting revenge for his partner's sake. He returned to work, but always came back within a day or less. Gadget was allowed to rest for awhile longer before he also returned, and within a more limited time frame.

But it wasn't over yet, not for the clone... 


End file.
